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BadChemistry

Annie Dookhan And The Massachusetts Drug Lab Crisis

Data

Annie Dookhan performed at least 58,070 criminal drug tests during her time at the Hinton State Laboratory. Massachusetts state police extracted records from the lab’s databases and distributed a set of spreadsheets to defense attorneys whose clients’ cases might have been affected. Those records list every test Dookhan performed and include details on chemists she worked with, drug findings, the submitting agency and, in some cases, defendants’ names.

The data is fragmented, inconsistent and incomplete. Defendants’ names aren’t standardized; many are shortened, combined or lumped together as “et al.” Some are simply police shorthand or jargon. But, we can draw some conclusions from the data we have. Read More…

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Wednesday that defendants seeking to withdraw guilty pleas because their cases were handled by disgraced former state chemist Annie Dookhan must indicate they would have insisted on a trial if they knew about her malfeasance.